Why the Tigers aren't dead yet. (Or, the hope you can still cling to that will get you by.)

I'll admit that I feel about as bleak as the rest of you right now.  This team has not been good lately.  They were not playing well before "the game" where we lost both Maggs and Guillen.  They have played even worse since.  Recent lineups have looked like somehow the Mud Hens won a bet with the parent team and got to borrow Miguel Cabrera for a week. So, where is that optimism I mentioned in the headline?  You'll have to check below the jump to find out!

The schedule, our much maligned silent 2nd half opponent, actually gives the Tigers a chance if we can take care of our own business.  We're five back of the ChiSox and four behind the Twinkies.  Over the next two months, we play Chicago 14 times (yep, 14 if I count correctly on the schedule) and we have the Twins for six games. If we can play the Twins to the tune of 5-1 and the Sox to a record of 10-4, both deficits are erased and the rest of the schedule will determine your 2010 AL Central champs.  (Chicago and Minnesota match up 9 times for what it's worth.)

Although the Peralta deal has met with mixed reaction, he gives us a proven major league player that has experience playing several positions where our bat has been lackluster thus far.  Guillen will be back around August 8 with Inge three weeks after that.  Should we stay afloat into September and Maggs is back in early or mid September, this team may have a better and more flexible roster than before the injuries, especially if more help is on the way.

The rotation has been more consistent lately, keeping us in the game.  Boesch has been non-existent; a broken slump or change in the batting order would certainly help run production.  The roster instability has allowed us to get a look at Rhymes, Larish, Worth, Weinhardt, and others the might prove to be valuable pieces in a September run.

Maybe I'm just trying to talk myself into believing.  It's certainly a tough road ahead, but I'm not giving up.  Until I'm proven wrong, I'll cross my fingers and hope for 5-1 against the Twins and 10-4 against Chicago.